Iron Maiden (eBook)

Every Album, Every Song

Steve Pilkington (Autor)

eBook Download: EPUB

2025
160 Seiten
Publishdrive (Verlag)
9781789524772 (ISBN)

Infos

Mention the words' heavy metal' and chances are one of the first names you'll get back is Iron Maiden. From their early days as front-runners of the New Wave Of British Heavy Metal in 1980, through to their epic and progressive works of more recent times, the band have been all things to all men in the metal world. Such is their profile that even the non-metal fan would probably cite them as a key example of the genre. This book lifts the lid on every single track recorded by the band, album by album, from the punk-ish debut with original vocalist Paul DiAnno, via the glory years fronted by Bruce Dickinson, through to the band's most recent albums Book Of Souls and Senjutsu.
By way of facts, anecdotes, analysis and a dollop of opinion, Steve Pilkington provides both an informative companion for the die-hard fan and a perfect road-map for the more casual listener to follow. From 'Prowler' to 'Hell On Earth', through each and every line-up change, this is every Number recorded by The Beast - the ultimate recording history of Iron Maiden.

Steve Pilkington is a music journalist, editor and broadcaster. He was Editor in Chief for the Classic Rock Society Magazine Rock Society and is now co-administrator of the rock website Velvet Thunder as well as presenting a weekly internet radio show called A Saucerful Of Prog. Before taking on this work full-time, he spent years writing for fanzines and an Internet music review site on a part-time basis. He has recently published Deep Purple and Rainbow On Track, The Rolling Stones On Track and Supertramp - Crime Of The Century, all for Sonicbond, and has also written the official biography of legendary guitarist Gordon Giltrap. He lives in Wigan, Lancashire, UK.

Textauszug

Chapter 2

Killers

Personnel:

Paul Di’Anno: vocals

Dave Murray: guitars

Adrian Smith: guitars

Steve Harris: bass guitar

Clive Burr: drums

Record label: EMI (UK), Harvest/Capitol (US)

Recorded between November 1980 and January 1981

Produced by Martin Birch

UK release date: 2 Feb 1981

US release date: 6 June 1981

Highest chart places: UK: 12, US: 78

Running time: 38:18

Following the release of the debut album, a rift had begun to grow between Dennis Stratton and the rest of the band, particularly Harris, who commented on the fact that he seemed more keen on the lighter, more introspective material, such as ‘Strange World’ and ‘Remember Tomorrow’. In fact, during the recording of the album, Stratton was discovered putting multi-layered guitars and Queen-esque backing vocals onto ‘Phantom Of The Opera’, which were immediately removed. With his similar assistance in the tweaking of the ‘Women In Uniform’ recording, it was clear that things were not going to work, and he was dismissed following the tour in support of the album in October 1980. Meanwhile, Adrian Smith, who had turned the band down out of loyalty to his own band Urchin, was regretting that decision after Urchin themselves split up early in 1980. After a chance meeting with Harris and Murray, he was asked to reconsider and, after a successful audition, joined the band in November 1980, just a month after Stratton’s departure.

One thing the band were adamant about was that, after the Malone debacle, the production had to improve for this next effort. This was all but assured when the services of Martin Birch were secured. Birch, who had cut his engineering and production teeth with Deep Purple during a long association, went on to enjoy a similar lengthy relationship with Maiden, lasting until his retirement in 1992. Most of the songs that ended up on Killers had already been written before the debut, with only ‘Murders In The Rue Morgue’ and ‘Prodigal Son’ composed specially for the album. None of the tracks had previously been recorded, however, with the sole exception of ‘Wrathchild’, which featured in demo form on Metal For Muthas. The album was recorded at Battery Studios, London, between November 1980 and January 1981.

Album Cover

Another Derek Riggs cover, of course, this time featuring Eddie, dripping axe in hand, pictured seemingly in mid-attack in front of some urban buildings, which appear to be flats. Eddie looks far more like the finished article this time out, compared to the lobotomised scarecrow which he resembled on the first album: Riggs had his hand in with the character now! The back cover of the album depicts a dramatic photo of the band onstage, all lights and pyrotechnics, with band photos and credits beneath. Interestingly, there is also a photo of Martin Birch, who is credited as ‘Martin ‘Headmaster’ Birch’, in contrast to his days with Deep Purple when he was known by the nickname ‘The Wasp’.

The Riggs logo on the album can be seen in one of the windows in the building to the right of Eddie. The two singles released at the time also had Riggs’ artwork, with the non-album single ‘Twilight Zone’ featuring a young woman (Eddie’s lover from the song’s lyric) sitting at a dressing table as his ghost looms behind her, while the follow-up, ‘Purgatory’, shows a devil’s face decaying to reveal Eddie beneath. Interestingly, the original artwork for ‘Purgatory’ was what became the cover of the band’s next album, Number Of The Beast – they held it back as it was felt to be especially effective – and Riggs had to hastily come up with the replacement art for the single. The Riggs logo is carved into the nightstand on ‘Twilight Zone’ and is just beside the devil’s face on ‘Purgatory’.

‘The Ides Of March’ (Harris)

At only a minute and 44 seconds, this instrumental is the shortest track ever recorded by Iron Maiden. It has been remarked upon many times that this is essentially the same track as ‘Thunderburst’ by Samson, included on their album Head On, released in 1980 and the first of their albums to feature Bruce Dickinson. The simple reason for this is that the track was written by Harris with Samson drummer Thunderstick during the short time he was a member of Maiden. Both elected to use it for their respective bands – though oddly, while the Samson version is credited to both of them, Harris claims sole credit for this version.

In fact, it is an effective and dramatic album opener, driven by a hypnotic and almost tribal drum pattern, which can probably be assumed to be Thunderstick’s contribution. At around 40 seconds, Adrian Smith comes in with his first Maiden guitar solo, followed by Murray taking over at the minute mark. The Samson track loses out by not having this strong guitar work, but it is possibly more strident and powerful in its sound, so the two versions both have their merits. ‘Thunderburst’ has an acoustic intro not used on ‘The Ides Of March’, but with the drum backbone still present, losing the Thunderstick credit seems strange.

The title, of course, comes from the name given to the 15th of March in Roman times, and the date on which Julius Caesar is said to have been murdered – making this an early example of Steve Harris’s love of historical references. On the subsequent tour, this was played as the intro music, with the band immediately going into ‘Wrathchild’, in exactly the same way as it does on the album...

‘Wrathchild’ (Harris)

Probably the most celebrated and enduring song from Killers, and with good reason, ‘Wrathchild’ follows on from ‘The Ides Of March’ seamlessly, the lyrics telling of the vengeful protagonist hunting down the father who abandoned him. Right from the bass-driven opening, courtesy of Harris, this is ‘old school’ metal with its flag proudly flying, owing far more to Mk III Deep Purple and Rising-period Rainbow than the punkier moments of the debut, settling into a loping groove and remorselessly pursuing it. There are notable differences between this and the earlier Metal For Muthas take of the song, most notably that this is taken at a faster pace with Smith weaving guitar embellishments over the riff, which were not present previously. The Killers recording is, without doubt, tighter and more polished, but the earlier version does have a certain raw power, deriving from the slightly slower tempo. The central riff bears a significant resemblance to Deep Purple’s ‘Stormbringer’ (never a bad thing), which is far more obvious on that first recording.

With this opening one-two, Maiden made it quite clear to anyone listening that they had upped their game from spirited rockers full of youthful energy to a serious metal force, and Martin Birch must take great credit for that.

‘Murders In The Rue Morgue’ (Harris)

At first glance, this would appear to be a retelling of the Edgar Allan Poe story of the same name, but actually, the two are only loosely connected. They both begin with killings in the aforementioned Parisian street, but whereas the Poe story is very much a detective story unravelling the (surprising) identity of the killer, the song takes the murder of two women overheard by the central character as the springboard for him being mistakenly accused of the crime and pursued throughout France. Interestingly, this rather simplistic tale is given a little twist in the last line when he worries that his doctor has told him he’s ‘done it before’, raising the possibility that he may have schizophrenia, not realising that he is indeed the perpetrator. A nice wrinkle for sure, though there are some clumsy lyrics here, such as the dreadfully awkward ‘I can’t speak French, so I couldn’t explain’. Harris was an ambitious songwriter, but was still honing his craft.

Musically, at slightly over four minutes, the song is almost as schizophrenic as its perpetrator hints at being, with the first minute or so effectively being like a different track. What a minute, though, as the delicate guitar and bass intro leads to 30 seconds of glorious progressive-influenced anthemic riffing, all strident guitars and soaring lead lines. Listen out for Harris playing harmonics on the bass at the beginning here, incidentally. He has said that he had never tried that particular technique very much before, but that it was an experiment in creating the mood, which it does brilliantly. At around a minute in, however, things change on a dime as the band crash in with a powerful and fun, though comparatively simplistic, fast-paced rocker, sung well by Di’Anno, and capturing the thrill of the chase as he outruns the law. However, this section undeniably leaves a sense of what might have been, had they developed that first minute across the whole song. There’s a nice guitar solo, mind you, with Smith and Murray combining on a twin-guitar effort, which gives the song a very effective mid-section.

Just don’t expect a scholarly reinvention of the Poe tale. A good song it is, but ‘The Rime Of The Ancient Mariner’ it is not!

‘Another Life’...

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 19.11.2025
• Reihe/Serie: On Track
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Kunst / Musik / Theater ► Musik ► Musikgeschichte
• Themenwelt: Kunst / Musik / Theater ► Musik ► Pop / Rock
• Schlagworte: Bruce Dickinson • Eddie • Janick Gers • Run to the Hills • Steve Harris
• ISBN-13: 9781789524772 / 9781789524772